The real stories from inside the F1 paddock

The end for Manor

It is very sad to have to report the news that Manor Grand Prix Racing Ltd has ceased training and the 200 staff have been made redundant. This means that the Formula 1 entry held by the team will now cease to exist and no team can be built from the ashes, unless an entry can be obtained from elsewhere. This seems unlikely as the investors who had been looking at buying into the team seem to have decided against that route. The administrators say that “with no sustainable operational or financial structure in place to maintain the group as a going concern” they had no choice but to close the company. The failure of the team is in part due to system in place in Formula 1, but also due to the fact that the Russian owner stopped paying some time ago but refused to agree a price to sell the team to new investors. This is one of the problems that occurs when people without a passion or the sport come and dabble in businesses that they know little or nothing about – and do not have the passion of racing people. The remaining assets of the team will be sold in an effort to pay off the team’s creditors.

Something is obviously very wrong with the sport if all three teams that were drafted in in 2010 are now out of business. If one of them died off, you could argue that they just didn’t put the right people in place, or made some serious errors… but three out of three? Clearly the deck is stacked against them.

The FIA and FOM needs to realize that they are at fault here, and rectify the situation.

All seemingly picked for the fact they did not have links to the big engine manufacturers or to existing teams, both of which things would have eased things initially, but might not have suited the FIA’s immediate political concerns.

And while Manor and Lotus Racing (as was) seemed to have reasonable funding in place initially at least, the financial due diligence on USF1 and Campos was plainly naive on the extreme or just incompetent.

Not quite, depends who has fixed security over the assets. The tax man doesn’t defeat those people (not even the pensions man can do that after the Nortel case). Does beat the floating charge holders though.

I would be surprised if many people outside the suppliers leant money without proper security in place. As is usual, it will be the kind folk in motorsport valley who supplied parts ‘one last time’ without payment that lose out.

If only there was enough goodwill amongst the teams, that they could agree to request FOM use a portion of that money to pay outstanding wages to the now redundant staff who worked so hard to earn those 2 valuable points.

Joe, did you witness the farce of Charles Nickerson and the late Tom Walkinshaw attempting to have a Prost nosecone scrutineered in the Sepang pitlane in 2002 in an attempt to claim the failed Prost team’s cash from 2001? Wasn’t this cash the source of the “fighting fund” that Paul Stoddart and Eddie Jordan were so self righteous about? I hope another, equally unseemly, battle is not going to break out with the 3 “boycott” teams.

Sad to read about Manor. Did Lloyds Development Capital bail out at the same time as Virgin?

Why wouldn’t Gene Haas simply offer to buy the assets for £10 more than the Administrator’s estimated liquidation value? It would cost a fraction of what it will cost him to get to the same point green-field, and it would accelerate his timing to 2015.

What a sad state of affairs for a sport that is awash with money. There is something perverse and immoral about the fact that the man running the sport can shell out 60 million Euros/dollars/pounds from his back pocket to pay for a bribery charge to be dropped, yet the sport that has made him all this money cannot sustain at the very minimum 10 teams. There is also the human element to this regarding all the workers and their families that this will affect. Hopefully these talented people will find employment elsewhere soon.
In my opinion F1 is slowly heading on a downward spiral. The so called big teams and their own selfishness will soon find themselves with no one to race against. And who wants to watch that?

Who’s gonna pay for poor Bianchi’s expenses now? He’s not as rich as Schumacher, who certainly can pay for his expenses by himself.

I have to confess everyday I shed a few tears for those poor guys. The worst thing is that I believe that none of the two will ever recover enough to live a live by themselves without needing outside assistance. And that thought is what is the most frustrating about that terrible situation.

Apart from the fact that they did a great job within the constraints of their budget within the last couple of years (post Symonds), they were also just about to take a fairly substantial payoff for having done so.

This outcome just seems to leave so much money on the table (all right, in the pockets of FOM) that I’m just astonished that no-one wanted to play. What does that say about the attractiveness of the sport to billionaires right now, Haas notwithstanding?

As much as I’m not sure you have time to read every comment, I would like to sing from my soapbox. This affects you by the way (although only by one viewer).

So, I’m done with the sport. I’ve watched since the late 80s, as a little kid sitting on my fathers shoulders watching from eau rouge no less the tickets were a reasonable price, atmosphere-damp yet fiery. It captured my imagination, I loved the colours of the cars on the grid, big and small, the sparks, the ballsy outspoken drivers, these guys were soulful. I even sat in a Larousse cockpit with no fuss with my old man, it was a more in touch paddock back then. What has transpired over the next few decades is two further gps at silver stone and 3 years ago 2011 nurburgring. Each visit I would say at the time represented good experiences, I even stated to my friends that weren’t sure about the sport that 2012 was another golden era coming to fruition with the results of teams and so many teams winning, it’s an open sport, and will interest people I would recommend. However…

The crap has hit the fan, the recent events has been a wake up call that I can no longer participate in viewing.

How does this affect you? I won’t be reading your blogs anymore, I won’t be participating on visiting autosport, I won’t participate interest in f1. I won’t ever guy a ticket to a Grand Prix. I can’t invest further interest in a sport that is so polarised. From the statements they’ve come out with – teams at the top are to blame, CVC is to blame, Bernie is to blame. Although you may or may not come to the conclusion I may be misinformed, the greed from the sport you report very well on has cut competitive results and this this ceases to be a sport. Further, I won’t recommend people friends/family that it offers any incentive for entertainment.

Now, only to say, I found your writing/blogging well informed, and you had a cheeky streak, I enjoyed your blogs without butt-kissing. I’m just gutted the sport came to this as I would have invested in your subscription service. The events that have happened the last few years have stopped me investing in subscriptions with yourself and autosport, I would have been more interested but the way things have transpired have unfortunately caused me to evaluate my interest in the sport. I feel it would be right to let you know that as a fan this is happening, as much as you may or may not worry, I felt it was my duty to tell you.

We all make choices in life. If you don’t want to watch the sport, that is the way of the world. It only affects me if you actually parted with money for GP+ or some other publication for which I work. If you don’t then I am not affected. If it did then I will have to live with it. I don’t think I can do much more than I have done to try to get things changed. If you want to change the world, the best way to do it is to advise everyone you know with an interest to read what I write and support what I do. That way I get more money (which helps cover the onerous costs) and more influence.

I find you have provided more information about the actual running of the sport that any other source. It can be very complicated at times with all the different companies but at the heart of it is pure greed. Simple. Divide and conquer added with greed. Once I started with your blog I look at the red cars in a different way and Horner! Ha ha what a hypocrite! Bla bla bla when he would sell his granny to get or keep an advantage. That carry on with the teams group or whatever it was called. It bearly got a mention in the main stream media, if it wasn’t actually explained on here I wouldn’t have understood the signifance of horners poor form. He’s very good at his job, like me e I suppose. Still a greedy pair with one agenda. By the way we could do with more info on the technical side. What’s happening with the engines and the 15-16 development race?

Interesting question. SKY reported that Mercedes have said they can easily find another 60bhp, apparently. I really hope Renault and Ferrari spend their “tokens” wisely and at least manage the same and more, and that the Honda engne is a cracker. As fun as it is to watch Lewis do well in a car deserving of his skills, it will get old next season.

Would it not be possible to avoid this situation in the future, by setting up a body within Formula One, So if a team failed. All of its assets would be taken over by this body made up and run by Bernie and the teams. It could then be offered for sale as a package to any appropriate party, who had shown that they were equipped to operate within this market. Thus protecting the integrity of the team, and Formula One, as a whole. But more importantly, it would protect the jobs and careers of these loyal and highly skilled staff.

Richard Branson running for the hills after one season didn’t help. The fact that the Toothy one / a guy like that could not make it in the F1 business tells you all you need to know about how warped F1 economics are. Real world economics (lack of sponsors) marketing realities (diminishing fan base) seem to be catching up with the f1 bubble. The rest of the world is grinding along with a lacklustre economic growth and Bernie keeps peddling a handful of celebrities in paddock cameos with predictable racing, passe and boring for the race fan.

How about a Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, Merc that could win in any given race, every 2 weeks. Not to mention if the cars were that close the on track action would be better.

I get that the Toothy one is a floater, but he couldn’t crack the F1 game with his operational model, credit to him in real world business he’s been very successful with his approach. Also, he’s not one to run from a challenge, ask British Airways, so if I guy like that turns tail considering the undeniable available worldwide branding exposure it raises very serious questions.

I’ll take the candidates that should be buying into the sport for exposure but instead are walking away as a serious statement and indictment of the current state of affairs.

I was actually more surprised that Branson didn’t pile in faster and harder with a proper title sponsorship package for Brawn after the first couple of races. Fantastic fit with the Virgin brand values, nailed on ‘contender / player / and still the underdog status’, and you’d have thought that a one season deal would have been available pretty cheaply relative to the coverage and leverage.

“How about a Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari, Merc that could win in any given race, every 2 weeks. Not to mention if the cars were that close the on track action would be better.

Who wants to watch a predictable rout?”

We’ve had this problem every few years. Periods of dominance for getting on for 5-or-so years – McLaren in the late 80s, Williams in the early to mid 90s, Ferrari in the early 2000s, Red Bull in the 2010s, and in between periods of relatively close racing.

Much like the Ferrari and Red Bull days, if you look further down the order and ignore the men at the front, the racing is exciting.

The one upside is that the TV Directors have wised up to this and don’t show much of Mercedes if they’re running away with it. In the Schumacher/Ferrari days, it seemed like Schumacher TV and was spectacularly dull as a result – lap after lap of Schumacher unless something noteworthy happened elsewhere.

Can anyone think of a ‘new’ team that’s ever become competitive? My only thoughts are the [Jordan -> Midland -> Spyker -> Force India] team and possibly [Sauber -> BMW -> Sauber]. Mind you both of those teams are over 20 years old.

With the cost of F1 these days they (the 3 new teams) didn’t stand a chance.

That was not about a team climbing the ladder based on hard-earned merit against the odds… it was about a sudden and sustained infusion of Red Bull megabucks… so it’s not really an example… (Toyota proved that doesn’t guarantee success, but everything proves that it’s become a necessary precondition…)

On the other, it’s after the Cosworth kit car era, or at least they acted as if it was. They decided that they’d never become competitive if they went that route. So they had their mate knock them up their very own turbo engine instead. Which was a bit of a stretch.

They only qualified their two cars -once each- in the whole of their first season. And missed the flyaways because they couldn’t afford to go (!)

Their first season was an utter embarrassment. But they started absolutely cold, ground zero, no previous.

Points in year 3. Podiums year 4. First race win (after switching to a customer engine deal) in year 6. No championships until year 14.

But they did it organically, and although the ownership has changed the team was recognisably the same and has never had the huge cashflow injection or huge stuctural changes that Stewart or BAR have seen.

Very disappointing news. Marussia had been making such good progress this season, and in Bianchi, Ferrari had a vested interest. Then everything went wrong for them so dramatically. I sincerely hope the redundant, hard working employees can find new positions as quickly as possible, and that they are able to collect any pay and benefits owing to them.

Am I the only one that feels like us F1 fans have been constantly kicked in the stomach ever since that horrible Sunday in Suzuka? The bad news never seems to stop! And now we have to face the very real prospect of double points artificially deciding what has been a largely fantastic season. Give us a break please!

My son worked for Marussia. Tonight he is redundant, but he is one of the lucky one, as he has a new job offer already, still in F1.
Its some consolation, but he is very sad for the guys who worked for him and with him at the team. Lets hope they find work swiftly.
I am sure Bernie, CVC and the FIA will not give the personal hardship they are now deeply implicated in any thought…..
But the truth is the ridiculous unbalanced financial structures and rules they have in place are a root cause of the failure of this spirited small team.
It’s sad to see that a team created by passionate racers who cut their teeth in the lower formula, are now forced out of the sport through failed promises and commercial greed of these supposedly ” custodians ” of the health of the sport.
Shame on you F1.

Shame on F1 for selling Three teams a bill of goods, a cost cap carrot being waved at entry none of them stood a chance in a uncapped arms race, how the hell could they. Not sure what the plan was according to Bernie as his knowledge base is plenty deep enough to no newbies don’t stand a chance against the ‘establishment’. Shame on Ecclestone for being a ‘user’ and taking advantage of hard working, decent people to make up numbers on his grid. A few less designer handbags for the brats and consideration of your legacy may be in order Ecclestone.

I’m geniunely surprised that he didn’t buy out Marussia himself (maybe on the quiet, maybe through a middleman) as a cheap, cost-effective way of helping to keep the numbers up – and reduce the pressure on FOM to make structural changes. He’s been known to help other teams out before now. Maybe he secretly agrees that the economics are less attractive now than they were then?

I think you’ll find that the hard-working mechanics-well-known to the other teams will be quickly snapped up in or around Milton Keynes. All the “lads” know each other well and with retirements etc they won’t be without a job for long. I also wish that great, adorable PR lady Tracy Novak all the best and a good new job.

Before or after the Caterham staff and no doubt scared shitless Lotus & Sauber folk?

There’s enough money in this sport that these teams should be salable, it’s not incompetency at the team level taking them down but short sighted greed and therefore incompetency at the promoters doorstep.

Am I missing something here. would it not have been worth a punt to get the team to the last race (£2.3M? a la Caterham) to entitle the team/administators the payout for ninth place. I know it assumes Sauber don’t eventually have luck on their side. But the odds look good.

I’m related with some employers in the team. This is the situation. Fitzpatrick has decided to put in administration only Just Racing Service that is at moment redundant. Fitzpatrick now is able to sold f1 partecipation, a car in order to partecipate immediately and a good project signed by Furbatto for the new 2016 car. All the employers have signed a 6 months notice period contract but the just racing service seems to be without enough money in order to pay this notice period(not manor grand prix). Fitzpatrick is not completely guilty, he seems apparently only a broker, able to play with the life of the people, but where is fia? Ecclestone? Liberty media and the uk government?! It’s another sad story, but this time was a team of good people powered by their passion.